Woods to Rest Ailing Elbow Until British Open

In little more than a month, Tiger Woods went from being tough to beat to having a tough time even playing.

Woods said yesterday that soreness in his left elbow would keep him from defending his title next week in the AT&T National at Congressional, and that he would not compete again until the British Open next month at Muirfield.

This is the sixth straight year that injury has kept him from either playing a tournament or finishing one.

The culprit this time is a strain in his left elbow. The problem first became apparent during the opening round of the U.S. Open last week at Merion, when he was flexing his left wrist or dangling his arm behind his back after shots out of the thick, punishing rough.

His injury is a blow to the AT&T National, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. This will be the third time since it began in 2007 that Woods has missed the tournament because of injury — knee surgery in 2008, his left Achilles tendon in 2011 and an elbow injury this year.

“Any time you have Tiger in the field, it certainly adds to it a lot,” tournament director Greg McLaughlin said. “But we have a very nice field this year and we look forward to a great AT&T National.”

Masters champion Adam Scott and U.S. Open champion Justin Rose are among those scheduled to play.

Woods was not specific about when or how the latest injury happened. He first showed signs of being hurt after hitting shots in the rough during the rain-delayed opening round at Merion, though he told a USGA official it was “fine” when he left the course Thursday evening.

NFL Football

Dave Jennings, Ex-Giants Punter, Dies

East Rutherford, n.j. — Former New York Giants punter and radio analyst Dave Jennings has died. He was 61.

The Giants announced that Jennings died at his home in Upper Saddle River yesterday morning.

The team was informed of his death by his sister, Susan Jennings, and several close friends.

The most prolific punter in Giants history, Jennings had battled Parkinson’s disease, a chronic degenerative neurological disorder, since 1996.

Jennings played for the Giants from 1974-84. He holds the franchise records for punts (931 — 405 more than second-place Sean Landeta) and yards (38,792). Jennings was selected to play in the Pro Bowl in 1978, ’79, ’80 and ’82.

He punted a career-high 104 times in 1979, which was the Giants record until Brad Maynard had 111 punts in 1997.

Tennis

Serena Sorry After Rape Comments

Serena Williams said she’s reaching out to the family of the victim in the Steubenville rape case after the tennis star was quoted in a Rolling Stone article saying “she shouldn’t have put herself in that position.”

“I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article,” Williams said in a statement released through her agent yesterday. “What was written — what I supposedly said — is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.”

The comment was made in one paragraph of a lengthy story posted online Tuesday about Williams, a 16-time Grand Slam title winner who is ranked No. 1 heading into Wimbledon, which starts next week.

Two players from the Steubenville, Ohio, high school football team were convicted in March of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl; one of the boys was ordered to serve an additional year for photographing the girl naked.

The case gained widespread attention in part because of the callousness with which other students used social media to gossip about it.